House Rules Committee To Meet Shortly To Consider Three FY2025 Bills

The House Rules Committee will convene shortly to consider Fiscal Year 2025 spending bills for the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State. The committee is expected to discharge the bills to the floor for a vote this week, where they will likely pass on party lines.

• House Republicans have chosen to sidestep a spending agreement cut by President Biden and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023, instead writing up bills with significant cuts to nondefense spending.
• The White House issuedstatements of administration policy yesterday, pledging that President Biden would veto all three bills if they were to somehow make it to his desk.
• The Hill notes that, "More than 230 amendments were filed for the Homeland Security bill, several of which focus on the border; upward of 210 amendments were put forth for the State/Foreign Operations measure, with some focusing on Ukraine; and around 400 amendments were proposed for the Pentagon legislation."
• The primary takeaway from the appropriations process so far is that House Republicans appear set to continue the combative approach to spending which characterised the FY2024 process. The current track will raise the risk of a government shutdown at some point in the lame duck period of Congress, when the Senate and House have to negotiate compromise bills.